Why Kirsten Gillibrand Wants You to Run for Office
It's 7 p.m. on a Wednesday, and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand hurries into a noisy Mediterranean restaurant in Manhattan. After a quick bite, she'll head to a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee, where she'll introduce President Obama. Already today, she has discussed the price of milk in one upstate town and infrastructure for sewers in another. She has been awake since 3:30 in the morning, when one of her two young sons asked if he could watch The Berenstain Bears. (Answer: no.) At 4 a.m., she got up and did laundry. At 6 a.m., she went for a four-mile run. She looks like she's ready for another run right now. She's amped up — she's riled about an "all-out assault on women's rights," she says, in reference to the recent Republican push to try to cut off federal funds to Planned Parenthood. She drops her fork on the floor, and her aide searches for a waiter. "Don't worry about it," Gillibrand says. "I'll just wipe it off."
Gillibrand, 44, has been compared to Tracy Flick, the maniacally ambitious class-president candidate played by Reese Witherspoon in Election. Sure, Gillibrand is driven — and petite and blonde, with a blazing blue-eyed gaze — but she is also hardworking and no-nonsense. Since switching careers from law to politics, she has been instrumental in key measures such as passing the 9/11 health bill for rescue workers and repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." We asked how she made it all happen.
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